Portsmouth High School pupils ran 125 miles after school on Wednesday 18 April to help raise money for their forthcoming Sports Tour to Barbados.

The fundraising event saw 29 pupils and 2 members of staff run a minimum of four miles each in a bid to clock up 125 miles between them. Each pupil ran just over 2 and half laps around Southsea Common and were sponsored by friends and family for the event.

125 miles was their chosen target as a way of  marking the schools recent 125th Birthday whilst raising funds to enable them to purchase additional and specialist equipment for their tour such as a new goalie kit, specially branded reversible netball bibs and balls.

The Sports Tour to Barbados will take place in October 2007 and will see the pupils compete in at least 3 fixtures in Netball and Hockey against local Bajan teams as well as friendly matches against other UK teams taking part in similar tours.

Whilst in Barbados the pupils will also take part in practices and training sessions as well as learn more about Barbados and the culture, particularly relevant given the recent focus on the Abolition of Slavery in 1807.

Sue Nelson, PE Teacher at the school said:  “The Build up to the tour, the training, the preparation and the fundraising is all about developing the individual, striving to improve performance, developing and enhancing their own fitness levels and enabling the pupils to get to know girls in other year groups”.

The girls attending the tour will be a mixture of ages from Year 10 through to the Sixth Form. Over the Easter Holidays they were given a personal training programme to help them achieve their goal of 125 miles. The training programme was developed to improve their Cardio Vascular fitness to help with the run.